The syllabus contains information regarding professor contact information, course description and expectations, attendance policy, netiquette guidelines, grading, expert weeks, student accommodation, plagiarism, and the safer spaces policy.

Prof. McCreight or Prof. MC (maura.mccreight@brooklyn.cuny.edu) 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Open Office Hours: ~5:30 Wednesdays

• The best way to contact me is e-mail. I check my BC e-mail about every other day, so please be patient if you do not get a response right away. I am also happy to meet with you during my open office hours which are every week before our Zoom meeting using the same Zoom link we use for class sessions. If you have a private matter, please e-mail me. 
• I will contact you through the email you’ve set up with CUNY First. If you have not received an email from me by August 25th, 2021 (our first class session), let me know right away. 

Course Description

This online introductory course offers various windows into the development of human expression through the arts, spanning prehistory to the 21st century. Using art and aesthetics from a variety of cultures and time periods, we will explore the way that art functions within broader relevant political and social events, both reacting to and influencing major historical moments. Throughout the course, we will grapple with notions of race, gender, and hierarchy, and challenge the Euro-American canon with a collective radical imagination. Students will learn how to navigate and explore their own specific interests within the history of art and become aware of resources that will guide them to further complexify their research and writing. They will become comfortable with speaking and writing about specific art historical styles, issues and key terms, but also gain confidence in their own voice as writers and hopefully become inspired to mobilize their ideas and thoughts about the visual world in contemporary society. 

Course Expectations

I am not in the camp of pretending that this is a normal time to be receiving a college education. I’ve designed my course to fit the needs of a wide variety of students, and my priority is keeping every single student engaged and challenged while eliminating unnecessary stress and anxiety. We will meet every week on Zoom until November 17, 2021, after which you are expected to do self-study for your final essay exam. 

Attendance 

Attendance and participation to the Zoom session is mandatory. If you miss a class, please reach out to me via e-mail to let me know. I reserve that time for my students and expect them to do the same. 

I ask that students inform me beforehand if they absolutely need to miss a class discussion. If it is an emergency and it is not possible to notify me in advance, please let me know as soon as possible via email. I am understanding, but not psychic. Remember, coming to class, even in a virtual space, is as much a benefit to you as it is to your classmates. Everyone is valued in this virtual space and collaborative participation is one way we can meet our collective and individual goals for the course. 

Netiquette Guidelines 

Netiquette (etiquette on the internet) is essential to maintaining a civil and productive academic atmosphere. Whether you are new to online learning, have completed online coursework in the past, or have experience posting in online discussion boards – please review these netiquette guidelines carefully and thoroughly. 

Below is a comprehensive list of dos and don’ts applicable to course discussion. 

Do: 

Participate in a manner that reflects your preparation, motivation, and knowledge of the course content. Students should try to sit at a desk or table and in a quiet place during class and should be dressed appropriately during live meetings. 

Post messages relevant to the discussion topic thread that make a positive and intellectual contribution.
Write complete and coherent sentences with proper punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. 

Write in a manner that reflects your command of the English language as well as your competence of course content. 

Enjoy yourself and make friends with your colleagues. Exchange contact info and gossip OUTSIDE of class. 

Do Not (doing so will lead to a reduced participation grade for the day): 

• Do not initiate or engage in a conversation on Blackboard Collaborate with a classmate while another classmate is speaking or presenting. 
• Do not use all-caps when posting a message. Messages posted in all-caps are interpreted as shouting and are considered very rude and inappropriate. 
• The course chat boards are academic in nature. 
• Do not overuse internet acronyms. (Examples: lol, omg) 
• Under no circumstances: 

Do not start or contribute to flame wars or flame other students or the instructor. Flame wars are disruptive posts often focusing on two or more individuals. These sorts of posts may contain anger, resentment, incivility, personal attacks, or a combination thereof. Flame wars disrupt the learning process and may make other students uncomfortable. 

If others start a flame war on a discussion board – do not reply or post on the topic. Please see my Safer Spaces Policy below.

Participation

Please come to class having done the reading and ready to participate in class discussions. This is the most important part of the entire course and it worth 15% of your grade. 

Grading/Assignments

Introduction Sheet and Audio/Video/Image: 10%

DUE September 1st

Free-Writing Assignment: 10%

DUE September 8th (1-2 pages)

Formal Analysis Museum Paper: 25%

DUE October 13th (2-3 pages)

Expert Week: 5% 

DUE the week you sign-up. Sign up HERE

Revised Thesis Statements and Bibliography Source: 10%

DUE November 17th

Paper Outlines and Final Thesis Statements: 10%

DUE December 1st

Final Essay Exam: 25%

DUE December 15th (3-5 pages)

Attendance/Participation: 5% 

Grading will follow the standard scale:

Expert Week

1. First Sign Up Here
2. Post a response using the directions below and prepare the same information to present to class (on the date you signed up for) over Zoom.

In order to receive full credit for your Expert Week (10 points) you will need to present and post what you plan to share with the class here. Please include at least one image with your text (at least 5 sentences). 

Some guiding questions for the Experts: What did you take away from the lecture powerpoint or podcast? Did anything stand out, either visually or contextually? What or who was most striking or inspiring? What visual connections did you make with the period in history the work of art is from? (You can answer all, one, or add another thought to the discussion). 

FAQ on Expert Week:

Q: Do students need to coordinate with the other experts for the week outside of class? Answer: No

Q: Do students need to be an expert for more than one week? No, students ONLY choose one week. 

Q: What do we need to do for expert week exactly? Answer: Read Directions above. 

Student Accommodation 

If you require certain accommodations (e.g., additional time on tests), please read this statement from the Center for Student Disability Services:
“In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be registered with the Center for Student Disability Services. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an appointment with the Director of the Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie Stewart-Lovell at 718-951- 5538. If you have already registered with the Center for Student Disability Services, please provide your professor with the course accommodation form and discuss your specific accommodation with him/her.” 

If you qualify, then you need to notify the professor to make arrangements for a quiz/exam in the testing center at least one week before the exam/quiz date. 

Plagiarism & Academic Integrity  

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated and will be reported immediately. Exams and papers found to have any plagiarized content will be given a 0. To avoid plagiarism, you must provide full citations for all types of sources. If you do not understand how to do this, or have questions/concerns, please make an appointment to see me. 

You must abide by the University’s rules of Academic Integrity as outlined in the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity:

The CUNY Policy on plagiarism says the following:

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

1. Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
2. Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.
3. Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
4. Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
5. Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting and pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.

Safer Spaces Policy

This policy intends to be a positive, pro-active, preventative step towards making our classroom spaces safer. I use the word ‘safer’ to acknowledge that no space can be entirely safe for everyone and not everyone experiences spaces in the same way. This policy is not about policing others – it is about people monitoring themselves. 

I ask my students to follow this policy because we live in a white supremacist, patriarchal capitalist society, in a city that is stolen from Indigenous people. This means that anyone who benefits from this privilege has more power over those that do not. Those who benefit from this privilege must be aware of how much space they are taking up, regardless of intent.

My classes do not tolerate any form of sexual assault or harassment, creepy, predatory and/or sleazy behavior, racism, ageism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, queerphobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, whorephobia, ableism, classism, sizeism, cultural appropriation, or any other behavior or language that may perpetuate oppression. I encourage students to contribute to safer spaces inside and outside of the classroom, but please expect that any violation of this policy in class will have consequences that could affect your participation and grade in the course. 

This remains the same for online discussion, correspondence with one another over Zoom, e-mail, or other forms of online communication, remote group activity, and all other peer interaction related to my class.